Bob Harrison wrote that he always feeds his bees 1:1 sugar syrup when
requeening
to help with queen introduction.

I have done exactly that for 70+ years, and rarely fail to get introduction.

Of GREAT INTEREST to me is WHY so many beeKEEPERS and notably beeHAVERS are
too CHEAP to feed 5 pounds of sugar when it costs only 30¢/pound.  I just
don't
understand that kind of thinking, better called NOT thinking.  People take
vitamin pills to aid their health, people feed their dog, their cat, their
horses vitamin pills
to improve their pet's coat appearance.  I wear expensive hand painted ties
to improve my appearance in public.  For MANY years, I requeen EVERY colony I
have,
used to be over 100, on September 1st by the "nuc" method, ALWAYS feed 1:1
sugar
syrup, and RARELY lose a queen.

Feeding of sugar syrup does great things for bees, particularly improving
their morale, diminishing any stress that they might have, improving their
winter store
position, forces them to draw foundation to store that feed, and all bee
scientists
acknowledge that sugar syrup is a far better winter food than honey, because
there
are no contaminants or any disease spores or bacteria in high grade cane
sugar.

AND THE COST IS ONLY ABOUT 30¢/pound.

Of course, as in any other hobby or commercial enterprise, there are those
"nuts"
or extremists citing belief in ORGANIC honey, or sayings like "natures way",
"not
touched by human hands", or "PURE honey", or any other saying that implies
that
the bees have produced all their honey WITHOUT ANY OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE in the
health of the bees.

Lastly, there are those beekeepers who DON'T REALIZE that bees PROCESS THE
SUGAR SYRUP THAT YOU FEED THEM JUST AS THEY PROCESS THE NECTAR BOUGHT TO
THE COLONY FROM CLOVER, BLACK LOCUST, or TUPELO.  Sugar syrup is a solution of
SUCROSE, and the bees ripen it into honey by injecting the enzyme Invertase
which
divides the polysaccharides into two simple monosaccharide sugars named
fructose
and glucose, and the excess water is evaporated down to 16%-18% water.

Lastly, from a business viewpoint, when sugar costs 30¢/pound and the
hobbyist can
sell his honey for $3.00-$4.00/pound or the commercial beekeeper can now get
about $1.00/per pound bulk, WHAT is WRONG about feeding sugar syrup to assist
the bees and is far more healthy than any honey, AND SAVE LOTS OF MONEY BY
SELLING THE HONEY AT A HIGHER PRICE THAN SUGAR AT 30¢/pound.

Perhaps some don't realize that in those100+ years prior to the mites, that
most
Canadian Honey Producers KILLED all their bees in late summer, extracted all
the
honey in the colony, and started NEW colonies in late spring of the next year
and
fed them lavishly on sugar syrup.

BTW, all my remarks in this note about sugar is about bags of cane table sugar
, and
NOT about high fructose sugar, which is chemically made from starch.

George Imirie
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper
Beginning my 71st year of beekeeping in Maryland just 20 miles north of
President Bush's WHITE HOUSE.

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